Restless Spirits
by PrennCooder
Summary: Final chapter up! Four ghost teens know no life outside of school in the ghost zone. A fifth teen joins them who has been to the human world before. These students begin to realize that they way they have been brought up isn't right. The five friends run away from the ghost zone. But will Walker catch them before they are gone for good? Canon ghosts are teachers at the school.
1. Chapter 1

**Restless Spirits**

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><p><strong>Co-Written with Terri Jones<strong>

**Zaid, Ridian, Azrael, Katalla (c) PrennCooder**

**Gray (c) Terri Jones**

**All Danny Phantom canon characters (c) Butch Hartman**

**Song lyrics to "How Could You Forget" (c) PrennCooder**

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

The year was 2007 and it was currently the second semester of high school for many teens in the ghost zone. Various schools in the ghost zone had been around for hundreds of years and had run smoothly behind the scenes. Younger ghosts didn't really get to get in on much of the action that happened around in the human realm.

Ghost children grew up into ghost teens who admired ghost heroes—crazy psychopaths and killers. Whoever caused the most chaos seemed to have the most fun. The idea would sound awful to most humans, but ghost zone life was another culture and an entirely different way of thinking and living. Ghosts had been brought up thinking a certain way and were taught by that same paradigm every chance possible.

The whole ghost culture was based off of revenge and power. In schools, their education focused not on mathematical or political elements but instead on gaining strength in power and learning to be more cunning. Other true academics were taught, of course, because children and teens were expected to be literate and function as a part of society. But society itself was far more broken up than in the human world.

Ghost zone society didn't have much of a structure at all in the way humans thought of it, but the locals knew how it worked and just sort of grew accustomed to it. Success was all power-based for them. Ghosts were greedy and selfish, only in it for themselves or so it seemed. Some had specific places they haunted in the human realm or things they obsessed over and went bezerk about, but others just didn't know what to do with themselves yet.

For instance, a kid named Sidney Poindexter haunted bullies in the human realm and used his powers to torment them in the name of justice. He was always picked on in the ghost world, but in the human realm he had free reign because no one out there knew of his infamous loser geek reputation.

Another boy named Azrael Vertinak haunted amusement parks in his spare time, breaking up friendships where he could. He didn't have friends, so he didn't want other people to have them either. Deep down he probably wanted to have friends but he was too much of a jerk to show that, so he ended up accidentally repelling those who he could have befriended.

A girl named Katalla Malita haunted pageants in the human world when she could, to mess with any of the girls who didn't appreciate being able to be in a pageant. Katalla always had wanted to be in one when she was younger, so any girl who wasn't grateful for being in them Katalla would tease.

But then there was a guy named Ridian Zalico, who was in the same grade as Azrael and Katalla—eleventh. Ridian had never been able to come up with a thing to haunt though. He was considered abnormal in high school because of that. Quite frankly he just didn't have a reason to get revenge, nor did he have anyone to take it out on because pretty much everyone in school liked him because of his abnormality.

Ridian was charismatic and upbeat, witty, charming, and quite the flirt. He had wavy dark purple hair with white streaks and his eyes were grey. He would wear pretty much anything as long as it was comfortable but he especially loved warm things like sweaters and jackets. He liked to look good.

Ridian was sometimes arrogant and prideful without realizing it, though no one minded it because most ghosts were stuck on themselves anyways. He was into robotics mostly and his favorite teacher, Mr. Technus, adored him. Lately Ridian had also gotten into architecture, especially that of the human world. Lately he had been itching to get out there and do more than just read stuff on his computer. But his parents didn't really care too much for that realm, and so he had never visited it at all.

Ridian went to lunch one cool spring day at noon. The morning classes were over but at least at lunch he would get to hang out with his two best friends. He really didn't know where they had become best friends though. It had only just recently sunken in with him how different they were from each other, and from him.

Katalla, who had the notorious nickname of Pinky, had long wavy pink hair with gold streaks and pink eyes, hence her nickname. Today she wore a black tank top with a gold belt and a white long-sleeve leather jacket to go with her pink pants and very fashionable black boots which had heels to make her taller since she was short and small naturally. Most people didn't notice that she was little because she had a big personality.

Katalla's laughter could fill a room. She was peppy pretty much all the time and liked to help people when they felt down about themselves. She was friendly, kind, and a social bug. Her outfits were kinda showy though, because she was a bit of a flirt. When she saw the right kind of guy, she couldn't really resist.

In her free time, Katalla enjoyed shopping and watching scary movies. But lots of her after school time was spent practicing the routine for the dance team and when she wasn't there, she was at the gym exercising. Her parents were health nuts so they had her get a membership years ago. She had become a bit of a health nut too.

Ridian and Katalla's other friend was Gray Name, and the two of them didn't know much about him except what was apparent just by looking at him and listening to him talk, when he did. He was often teased because his last name was Name. He was pretty blunt, and could be obnoxious and rude at times but Ridian and Katalla didn't mind him.

Gray could be goofy and strange too, and oddly protective of his friends when he wanted to be. But mostly he let the two of them do the talking. He liked things like rock music, fire, motor bikes, and daredevil stunts which he thought were amusing. As for his appearance, he had shaggy dirty blond hair with dark blue strips and his hair covered one of his eyes usually. Today he had on a simple dark blue hoodie, black pants, and converse shoes.

When asked where Gray got his converse, he didn't answer. Katalla and Ridian suspected Gray had visited the human world again but they didn't know how. Katalla knew where a portal was that led to a spot in the human realm, but she had always been afraid to bring it up because she knew Ridian would want her to take him through. But then she could get in trouble, because she was not supposed to go through herself, much less bring another person.

Thankfully, Gray never shared where he really got the shoes. By the time the silence at their table got awkward, it was time to move on to the next class. Ridian and Katalla put their lunch trays away and walked on together. Gray got lost in the crowd behind them. Gray went the opposite direction of his friends as he left the cafeteria because he was in ninth grade, so he was headed to science with Mr. Vortex.

Ridian and Katalla made their way across the hall to their lockers with the other eleventh graders and gathered their books as they moved next towards choir class with Miss McClain. "I just thought of something, Pinky." Ridian mentioned on the way to class. "Isn't Miss McClain a bit young to be teaching?"

Katalla shrugged. "I dunno, she's like what, five years older than us?"

"Barely legal." Ridian said with a laugh. "But hey I heard a rumor that Principal Walker blackmailed her into taking a job here. I wonder what the real dirt is on her. You know how I get curious."

Katalla snickered. "Wow, Ridian, just don't get yourself in trouble. Don't want to wind up in Walker's prison." She joked.

"Apparently neither does Miss McClain!" They shared a laugh again as they parted ways once they entered the choir room. Ridian took his place in the tenor section while Katalla took a spot with the altos.

Miss McClain had firey blue hair and she dressed like a rock star. She didn't really look much like the typical choir director but the teens loved her because she was unique and totally got their style. And she also knew music very well. instead of going with traditional music pieces like other choirs did, Miss McClain revamped all the songs so that they had a bit of a rock twist to them and weren't as "boring".

That solved the problem every choir director in history always had with kids staring blankly into the audience during performances. Now the kids loved the music and couldn't wait to get to class! Miss McClain had also changed the "band" class she managed too. Out with the brass and in with the drums and guitar! The final music performance of the year was bound to be a hit all around.

Ridian loved to sing, and he got a little into it too. He was a pretty good singer himself but even if he wasn't, he wouldn't care. He wouldn't stop singing for anything.

"_You say you don't remember—but how could you forget_

_That night I fell in love with you, I never will regret_

_I know I had you the-en; I know I need you now_

_So why have you forgotten? I wonder why and how_

_You used to love me tender…oh how could you forget?_

_That night I thought we fell in love…I guess I'm wrong again_…"

As the first chorus of the song came to a close, two of Walker's goons came into the classroom with a struggling ghostly teenager none of them had ever seen before. Miss McClain made a face at them men, for she did not like to be interrupted on any account. The men tossed the lad into the classroom and onto the floor where he hit with a thunk. Rubbing his own sore arm, he stood up, red eyes glaring maliciously at the goons.

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><p><strong>So what did you think? I'm really excited for this story and curious to see what you guys will think of it! Terri Jones and I both love the idea ^_^ there will be more updates to come but till then, please review and fave!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Awh no reviews yet :( **

**Well I hope some of you guys will comment soon! **

**Hope people like the story, cuz I know I do XD What do you think of the OCs so far?**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

The ghost men whispered to Miss McClain for a few moments and had her sign some papers and then they left. "Get up, kid." Miss McClain said, as she offered him a choir song booklet. "Which part do you sing?"

"I don't sing." He replied coldly.

"Tenor's running a little short. Over there, take a seat in the back." She ordered. With a huff, he did it. Once he was seated, the director composed herself and addressed the class. "It appears we have a new student, Mr. Zaiden Kerrer."

"It's Zaid." He corrected automatically, unfortunately drawing more unwanted attention to himself.

The other students all looked at Zaid weird and muttered amongst themselves their own theories as to why he had now just joined the school at such an odd time. The year was more than half over. But what was even stranger was that Zaid looked unfamiliar though he was a ghost just like them. Even if it was only vaguely, the student body at least knew the faces of one another for the most part.

But if they didn't know Zaid, it must mean he had been avoiding going to school and had just been caught by the authorities. In all their wild assumptions, most of the other students came to the conclusion on their own that Zaid was bad news, though that was pretty obvious already. Zaid just sat there in silence while everybody else sang.

He had black hair with red streaks at the ends and a slight greenish tint to his pale skin. He was rebellious indeed and often came off as looking like the "bad guy" to other students. That wasn't who he was at all, but he had just kind of grown used to it by now. He wondered if a day would ever come when he would have a reason to try and change their minds. But for now, he just wanted to get by. Things like cool weapons, parkour, playing guitar, motorcycles, and making chains were enough to entertain him for now.

Ridian couldn't help but notice Zaid like all of the other kids did though. Ridian's curiosity kept nagging at him to go up and introduce himself but in all honesty, Ridian was scared of that stare. Ridian and Katalla talked about the new guy on their way to their next class which was P.E.

"Zaid kind of reminds you of Azrael don't you think? I mean, his whole jerky way of acting is so…" Katalla started, but Ridian put his hand over her mouth as they walked past the entrance to the guy's locker room.

Ridian cast her a weird look as he let go. "Seriously, Katalla, could you have said anything more foolish right there?"

"I know! I'm sorry…"

"You would have been if he heard you. I'd rather avoid a fight with him if I can."

"Good idea." Katalla said, and she went into the girls' room to change.

Ridian huffed. Next everyone gathered in the gym and awaited instruction from Mr. Skulker. Ridian was one of the first ones changed but Azrael and Zaid were already in the gym, standing facing each other. "Oh no…" Ridian said quietly to himself as he face palmed. "This is not going to be good."

Azrael had already begun to tease Zaid about that "entrance" he made in choir class earlier. Zaid was no coward, unfortunately, so he wasn't going to just bow out and let Azrael say what he wanted about him.

Azrael was, and always had been, a jerk. He had a cocky look to go with it. He had pin-straight electric blue hair and orange eyes. Today he wore a long black jacket, a green shirt, orange pants, and combat boots. Zaid was dressed for a more "human" gym class, as he wore a grey tee shirt and red sports shorts with sneakers.

That was just another opening for Azrael to poke fun at Zaid and get closer to figuring out the truth. Eventually Azrael even landed on it—Zaid had attended human school for the past several years. The fact was laughable to Azrael, but it gave Zaid a chance to pick up on some truth about him too.

"Where are your friends, huh?" Zaid remarked. "Cuz I don't see any around." Azrael stopped laughing at that point. "At least where I came from, human school or otherwise, I had a friend in someone there. Even if I only had one true friend, that's more than you have, I see."

Azrael just stared in shock as people started to look now that they saw someone had dared to talk back to Azrael for once. Usually people just ignored him because they didn't like him, and neither was he much of a threat. "Look, he isn't denying it!" Azrael said, trying to get the heat off of him and back to Zaid now. "He's been to human school!"

"So what if he has?" Katalla remarked, now that she had entered the gymnasium. "What does it matter? Fate brought him here now, so he's part of our class whether we all vote on it or not. You pick on everyone, Azrael, and I don't know why but we have no reason to be afraid of you. As Zaid pointed out, you really don't have any friends, do you?"

Ridian just watched as Katalla took her place on the stage to tighten her shoe laces casually. He grinned proudly because he knew she wasn't afraid, not even of Azrael.

Azrael turned to sit down on the floor then, and hoped to let the whole scene wash over soon. "I never pick on _you_." He muttered only to himself, referring to Katalla.

"Alright, everybody listen up." Mr. Skulker barked. "Time to take attendance!"

Ridian just gave Katalla a fist bump. "You had a really good point there, about how Azrael doesn't have friends. I noticed that before, and I had the idea that maybe you and I could become his friends. I know that sounds a bit radical but Katalla, listen, I don't always believe in fighting fore with fire, so to speak. I think maybe it'd be cool if we let him into our group at lunch. I've just got a feeling that sometimes things could turn out for the better if we didn't always do what we were expected to."

Katalla nodded. "You're absolutely right. But I'll go one further—how about we invite Zaid too? I'm growing more curious about him by the minute and I think he could be the key to helping Azrael. If we get them to become friends before they become enemies, then there's hope for the rest of the student body too."

Ridian smiled, but then Skulker barked at them to get running as he blew the whistle for the class to start doing laps. Ridian and Katalla jumped in surprise but then off they went with the crowd. After school, Ridian did what research he could at his computer in his condo building. He and Katalla lived on the same floating island and their condos were within walking distance of each other. Ridian just hoped she wouldn't walk over while he was at his computer.

Once he started his research, he didn't want to finish it. And right now all he wanted to do was search Zaid. Ridian originally wanted to search Miss McClain but Zaid seemed far more intriguing right now. Ridian found nothing on Zaid himself, however, it looked that there was a person by the name of Velocity Kerrer who was a motorcycle race champ. Ridian wondered if Velocity and Zaid were connected somehow.

That next day of school, Gray ate his food silently and stiffly as Azrael sat on one side of him and Zaid sat on the other. Katalla and Ridian were on the other side of the table. They ate their food in the silence. The lunchroom was bustling around them, filled with voices of all kinds of mixed emotions from laughing at a joke to anger and fighting.

"So who are you?" Gray finally asked. "And why have you come to sit with us?"

Both of the new guys said their names at the same time, and then looked at each other strangely. Gray was rather scared to be in the middle of them. He felt like he was tiptoeing around a swarm of angry ghost bees—one false move and he would get stung.

"She invited me." Zaid answered, pointing to Katalla. "And I guess, him too."

"It wasn't just her idea, you know." Ridian piped up. "I thought it would be great if we could all be friends."

"What's wrong with our group the way it was?" Gray asked softly, hoping that would not earn him the stinger.

Ridian sighed. "Nothing. I just thought these two fellas were cool. I mean, Zaid, you seem pretty smart. You're definitely aware of your surroundings. Azrael, you're an excellent fighter. I've never seen you lose to anyone. So why do neither of you have any friends yet? I don't know, but here we are, offering to be your friends. Take it or leave it, there's a seat at this table open for both of you."

At this, Azrael was silent. But Zaid opened up, "I gotta admit I don't really want to be here. I was kind of telling myself over and over again this whole situation sucks more than it does. And here you are, being nice to me and all. What's that all about?"

"I think we could all benefit from each other." Katalla said. "Bigger groups are always better."

Zaid took a sip of his soda. "If you say so." He responded nonchalantly.

After lunch was over, Ridian couldn't help but wonder to himself what was going to happen next. Had he and Katalla miscalculated, or did they really do the right thing?


	3. Chapter 3

**"Moonlit Sky" lyrics © Terri**

**"Whispering Tree" lyrics © Terri**

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

Gray entered his house and tossed his backpack onto his couch, when he heard an 'omph'. He cringed at the sound as his sister stood up.

They were the only ones, just him and Leah. When they died, he was two years old, and his sister was sixteen.

"Sorry Leah." Leah shook her head, but gave him a small shove onto his side.

"Hey, little brother." She smiled, ruffling his hair. He relaxed slightly. He wasn't as quiet around the others. "Go on, it's late kid." He nodded, pulling out his cot and laying down. She started humming the tune to the song her parents used to sing to them when they were kids.

"_Moonlit sky, if you wouldn't mind,_

_Could you cover me tonight?_

_And as the stars,_

_Fade from my sight,_

_Would you help me to sleep?_"

She always sang it to her brother, always. Even on nights when she was certain he didn't need it.

Gray awoke in the morning as a bucket of cold water was dumped on him. He screamed as Leah snorted, shoving his bag into his hands.

"Go change, you've got school again today." She ordered. He rolled his eyes, but nodded anyways as he left to change.

He flew into the school, heading towards his homeroom, but stopping to talk to Katalla. He nodded to her, putting his bag and things he wouldn't need into his locker. He glanced behind him as he closed the locker.

Lunch came and Ridian, Katalla and Gray sat at a table together, as Zaid and Azrael walked towards the table. Gray looked unhappy with it, but he understood it had to happen. All in all, if they wanted new friends, then who was he to stop them? An idiot, that's who.

"Hey." He shook his head, Katalla had snapped her fingers in front of his face. He shrugged, knowing that she would probably repeat herself.

"Yes?" he asked bluntly. He could see the looks of 'weren't you paying attention' and he almost slouched in his seat.

"We're discussing having a sleepover." Azrael said, glaring at the youngest at the table. He slowly stood up, and started to edge away.

"Is your house open, Gray?" Katalla asked him. He nodded.

"I'll talk to Leah about it." He spoke softly. "I've got class. Bye." He bolted away. He didn't like to be glared at, nor did he like to be growled at.

He started towards the exit of the school, trying to avoid heading towards the counselor's office. He hated going to Counselor Spectra's office. She annoyed him to no level of anger. He sometimes didn't know why, but then he'd remember—she looked so much like his mother.

"Hey." He groaned. Yup, he was caught by her. "Don't you have an appointment with me?" She leaned over and looked down at him. He glanced up at her.

"Nooooooo." He drawled, before he took off running.

When he arrived at his home, he put his bag on the hook it would belong on.

"Hey, baby bro... who's coming?" She motioned to the bag. He gave her a look, and she chuckled. "Got it." She snorted, walking off and turning on 'My Wish' by Rascal Flatts, so he knew that she was up to something.

"Whatever you're planning, DON'T!" He shouted to her. The answering was laughter from Leah. Gray ran a hand through his hair, glancing over at the wall covered in pictures. "Did I have to agree?" He muttered, pinching his nose.

"Gray, if you didn't want them to come..." She started, and then she noticed him staring at a picture in their lair they couldn't get rid of. "Oh." She looked around, before nodding slightly. She moved his backpack over one hook. "There. They won't see this." She nodded. He glanced at his backpack for a moment.

"Thanks, Leah." He hugged her swiftly.

The sleepover would be that night, so he had to start getting ready for them to come. So, first, he opened the door to the rest of the house, before he started to dust. Leah and Gray almost never used the rest of the house. Sure, they had a large house, but they used their living room and kitchen for everything. They ate in the kitchen, slept, changed, did school, everything else in their living room.

He flipped on a light, entering the master bedroom, taking the sheets and switching them around, before making the bed. Leah was taking care of the bottom four floors, while he took the top three. He started with the fifth floor and would head his way up.

"Hey!" Leah shouted up to her baby brother. "Are you gonna hurry it up?"

"Do you want me to be stupid?" He shouted back without thinking. A crash was what followed. "Sorry!" he shouted.

"Do NOT joke like that you idiot!" She shouted to him. She was more like a mother than a sister. He shouted an affirmative.

He finished his cleaning and headed towards the living room, so he could get snacks together for the other four, while Leah started making homemade pizza, from plants that had been planted outside the house, along with milk from the ghost cows.

"They'll be here in thirty minutes." Gray appeared behind his sister, and she threw her knife up in the air. He dodged it as it buried itself in the ground. "Sorry..." he muttered.

"Don't do that. You could've ended your after-life!" She screamed.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered. She pulled him into a hug, and he held to her for his life. "I'm so sorry. I should've let you know I was coming in."

"You should've." she whispered, pressing her nose into his hair, humming Moonlit Sky to him.

It was around time for them to come, and the two Name's were waiting for Gray's friends to appear. Gray was pacing, while Leah was shaking her head.

"A watched pot never boils." She chastised. He turned to give his older sister a lot.

"But an unwatched pot may catch on fire and melt down to a goopy pile of melted gunk." He replied bluntly.

"I should never have taught you sarcasm." She complained. The door opened and Katalla and Ridian entered.

"Hey!" She called. Gray's lips twitched. Ridian smiled.

Azrael and Zaid had come soon after, and the group was talking. They were sitting around a room on the fifth floor, the master suite.

"Death days." Gray mumbled off the top of his head. "How did everyone die?" he asked bluntly. Everyone stared at him.

"We didn't." Ridian slowly said.

"Oh..." Gray turned slightly red. "Sorry." He murmured. Leah entered with the large handmade pizza. "Pizza!"

"Dork." Leah called him lovingly, running a hand through his hair.

As she left Gray saw all the glares he was being given.

"Um..." He started slowly. "I died." He stood up, shaking his head. "So... yeah. What are your families like?" He asked, trying to change the subject with a shaky laugh.

The other ghosts started to talk about their families, and Gray breathed in softly, glad that no one asked about what he had said.

Katalla took the bed while the boys slept peacefully on the ground. But Gray couldn't sleep. He knew. He'd brought up memories he didn't want to remember. He closed his eyes, but kept hearing screaming. Lots of screams, fighting, anger, hatred.

_"YOU –!" His mother screamed at the top of her lungs._

_"Oh, I'm the –? You are a COMPLETE and UTTER—"_

Gray awoke in a cold sweat. He had fallen asleep. And he didn't want to go to sleep. He almost always had dreams like that. Almost always. It was always when he was asleep. His biological parents; he was always dreaming about his biological parents.

Leah was there, seconds later.

"_Moonlit sky, if you wouldn't mind,_

_Could you cover me tonight?_

_And as the stars,_

_Fade from my sight,_

_Would you help me to sleep?_

_And starry night?_

_Will you be my friend?_

_Will you keep me safe as possible?_

_If I start to fall into a deep rooted fear,_

_Will you help me awake from the nightly terrors?_"

She rocked him back and forth as she sang. The others were sound asleep, and none of them awoke during her singing. Leah laid her baby brother back down, kissing his forehead and got up and left the room.

When Gray awoke, the sun was rising, and he could hear his sister singing 'Over You' by 'Daughtry'. He smiled, waking the others up. Katalla and Ridian got up well, while Azrael and Zaid both attacked him.

Waffles and pancakes were covering the table in the kitchen, and Gray, Ridian and Katalla were the already at the table and were eating. Waffles were piled high on Gray's plate, covered in blueberries, strawberries, powdered sugar, whipped cream and syrup.

Leah was at the head of the table, and the foot was left empty. Gray was on her right, Katalla was on the left, and next to her was Ridian.

"Sugar." Gray murmured lovingly to the waffles. The others stared at him worriedly as he maniacally started to cackle.

"Annoying."

"Thank you, big sister!" Gray answered. He was starting to go on a sugar high.

"Catch him." Leah ordered as her brother took off running. "He'll go towards the attack, and if he doesn't, then it's more than likely he'll go towards the garden, or his room. Get him now!"

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><p><strong>Please review ^v^<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey here's another chapter :D hope you guys like it!**

**Also my story Phantoms, which is still accepting OCs, only has one more chapter till book one is complete and then its on to book two! I'll probably be updating that one soon. **

**Meanwhile in my own life I've been pretty busy which is always great x3 today was bittersweet but still so many good things have happened in my life lately and I'm very grateful for that.**

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

The four teens would be staying the weekend at the Name manor, so they would have time to know about how Gray acted at home. He acted silent and gothic at school, but at home, he was the most crazy kid anyone could ever meet. While Katalla and Ridian knew that, they also knew that if he panicked, he'd lash out and hurt someone, even if he cared for them.

But, on his side, he wasn't in any of the places his sister said he might be. He was in a tree, hidden above a tree house. He always would go up to the tree house when he was faking a sugar high, needing a safe place where he wasn't being watched by anyone.

He found it, three years earlier. And when he did, he found that he liked it. He wrote poetry up there, listened to the jazz music he liked, when people weren't around he listened to it, he drew up there. But...

'Moonlight Serenade' by 'Glenn Miller' was playing on the radio he had in the tree house. He stared up at the glowing green leaves, before looking down at the hedge of the maze beneath the tree. It was Pandora's maze, and he didn't want her to know about him being up in the tree house.

"Hey!" Katalla shouted, looking up at him. He looked down, biting his lip. "What's up?" she asked, flying up towards him.

"I've been having dreams." He finally answered her. "You know how I said I had died?" he looked to her for a moment. She nodded. "I died when I was two." He started. "But I can remember life before I died. My mother and father fought non-stop. My sister, she was a thief beforehand, trying to get their attention." Again, Katalla nodded. "And... when I died, it was in a car crash. But I can always remember those screams. Always." He shuddered.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he broke down crying. Pain from the nightmares. Everything from the thirteen years since he died.

"Hush, hush." She whispered, running a hand through his shaggy hair. She rocked him back and forth, humming softly to him. He was sensitive, but he hid it behind the annoying façade. And when he broke down, he usually needed a shoulder to cry on.

When they returned to the manor, each story was a version of each of the Name's homes before they died, his eyes were dried.

"Thanks." Gray said, his face was slightly a bit redder than it usually was. He smiled up at her, before bolting inside.

After quickly doing all of the schoolwork they had to do before the week started back up, they watched some movies. They were pretty bored. So, Gray snuck out of the room and started setting a maze of pranks in the hallways, before re-entering the living room and pulling his phone out and starting to type up a paper he was doing for extra credit.

As an 'Eek!' and a 'grunk' came from the hallway, Gray looked up from the computer. He smirked and shot off towards the hallway. When he opened the door, Katalla was upside down in ghost-proof rope.

"HA!" He shouted, laughing as he leaned against the wall. Katalla glared down at him, but his smiling face was something rare. He usually didn't smile much.

"Let me go." She ordered. He nodded, pressing a button, releasing her.

"Don't tell the others please." He asked as he helped her stand up. She nodded, smiling at him. Pranks were what he loved.

"Alright."

Another 'kuchunk' and 'grank' and he shot out again. This time, it was Leah. He cringed.

"Sorry, Leah." He murmured. When she was on the ground without the murky blue gunk out of her hair, she gave him a very, very angry glance. He looked at her apologetically.

"Clean." She ordered, her eyes were angry, and his hair started to float above her head as her telekinesis started to lift random objects.

Dinner came and went, and as the others slept peacefully around, Gray hummed to himself, to try to keep his memories at bay.

By the time he awoke the first time, he was awoken in a cold sweat. He shook it off, the sound of smashing glass, the sound of sirens, his sister telling him to run. It kept happening. And... he couldn't make it stop.

He closed his eyes, going for memories that weren't horrifying. A memory from two years prior, a wedding he had gone too, when he'd sat with a few other people, he couldn't remember their names. But he remembered how one of them was... a girl, while the other three were boys.

He stood up and started to float towards his sister's room. He could hear her murmuring in her sleep. He shook his head, slowly walking towards the kitchen.

It was 2:00 am, well, 2:24, so he at least he'd be the only one up for a while. He had his schoolbooks out on the counter, and was reading ahead in the science for extra credit. He slowly fell asleep.

Leah smiled, seeing him at the kitchen counter. She pulled a blanket up to his neck and pulled his science book away. She sighed, remembering most of the things from before her and her brother's death.

_She sighed, pulling her baby brother into her arms. She'd just broke into a house and had been taken back to her house yet again. And now, her parents took her to JD. She didn't want to go, but she had to. They were wanting to take her there, to get her help._

_She glanced in front of her, and suddenly, a car came out of nowhere. It hit the side of the car, and she felt shrapnel hit her side. She tried to not cry._

She smiled, brushing hair back off of her brother's forehead.

Gray started to move in his sleep as soon as Leah left. He was struggling in his sleep. Sweat laced his forehead.

Glass shattered in their home. Walker had entered, and his goons were after Leah again, for her crimes as a human.

"Gray, run!" She ordered softly, and he obeyed her as best he could by running through the backdoor, and out towards Pandora's maze. It wasn't the first time that Walker ever broke into the house trying to capture his big sister.

"Get him for leverage!" Bullet had shouted, the first time it had happened. So, every time it happened, he was hunted down.

A crash followed Gray from behind. He ran further into the maze, he was terrified, and he was glad he lived by Pandora for yet another moment.

_Fourteen year old Gray entered the high school for the first time ever. He slid off into the shadows almost immediately. His converse squeaked as he walked down the hallway towards his locker._

_A pink-haired girl was talking animatedly with some boy, who walked off minutes later. A purple and white haired kid was there as well, and they were right in front of where his locker was. He sighed, waiting for them to move so he could put his things into his locker. Class would be soon, and he was hoping they would move, and soon._

_Finally he sighed. They couldn't tell that he was ticked off at them._

_"Look, I have class in ten minutes! Move! You two idiots are in front of my locker!" He snapped in a not so rare fit of rudeness._

_"Oh. Sorry." The girl moved, and the boy moved with her. "I'm Katalla, by the way." She said as Gray started to store his stuff into his locker._

_He sat at lunch by himself. Most other kids ignored him, while Katalla and Ridian, as he had introduced himself, had been watching him as much as they could._

_"Hi!" Ridian called, sitting down next to her. Gray lifted his head and started at the purple-haired-boy._

_"Yes?" he asked softly._

_"We're sitting with you at lunch." Katalla answered._

_"What Pinky said." Ridian answered, smiling cheerfully. Gray did what he knew he could do best, he mocked Ridian's smile. Katalla laughed at the mocking face. Gray smiled faintly, before the smile disappeared._

_"You never told us your name."_

_"Gray." Gray answered Katalla. "Gray Name. But if you ever make fun of it... then consider this relationship over. I wouldn't want to know either of you then."_

_"We understand."_

_Two weeks later, Ridian and Katalla spent the night for the first time at Gray and Leah's house. It was also yet another night that Walker decided to try again. Gray had immediately pushed the older two out the back towards Pandora's maze, and towards his tree at the end of said maze._

_"Go! Go! GO!" He shouted, pushing them on. They started to fly as fast as they could as they could hear the sirens from behind. He whipped around to see his sisters form flying through the sky, being chased by Walker and the Ghost Police. He sighed, slumping against his tree. There words carved into the tree, he knew them by heart as he traced them. They were written in the human tongue._

_"Today I heard the noise of whispering trees,_

_And something else no one ever sees,_

_The trees where moving to and fro,_

_While I was down here below,_

_I heard their voices joined in song,_

_I wished I could sing along,_

_Whisper and wisher,_

_Listening,_

_Higher and higher I climbed,_

_Try as I might I can't sing their kind,_

_The whispering trees will sometimes talk to me,_

_I have been listening,_

_I do not understand what they mean,_

_When the whispering trees talk to me."_

_As he removed his hands from the tree, he smiled faintly. He knew not who wrote it, nor why. He stood up. _

_"The tree house up above has sleeping bags and pillows. I sleep up there when this happens." He said, motioning upwards. "Go ahead." He said, smiling at them. "I'll be up in a bit."_

Katalla shook his shoulder, trying to wake him. He was smiling in his sleep, and Leah shook her head to the pink-haired-girl.

"He's been having problem's sleeping recently. Don't wake him, especially since he's smiling." She said, smiling at her brother's sleeping form.

When he awoke, he was shoved off of the bar by Katalla.

"Lunch." She smiled down at him. "And your sister is out at her job." Because Leah looked human, she could get a job in the human world, where she would buy human stuff for the ghost teens. She was basically smuggling in human things and, in return for things to grow her and her brother's food.

"Great. Why did you shove me off of my seat?" He asked, glaring at the older ghost.

"Because!" He smiled as the other three entered the kitchen as the grilled cheese sandwiches were placed on the table.


	5. Chapter 5

**Heeeere's a chappie! x3**

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

Sunday evening after the sleepover was officially over, Ridian, Azrael, Zaid, and Katalla all flew away off in the direction of their own homes. Gray was sad to see them go but he knew they had to. It would not be long before he saw them again because of school, yet he still couldn't help feeling distant from them somehow.

While Zaid and Azrael split away rather quickly, Ridian and Katalla flew back to their island together. It was composed of just a dozen condos lined all in one row. Ridian walked the rest of the way to his and Katalla flounced towards hers. They shared a smile just before he entered into his home.

The house was lit inside so that meant at least one of Ridian's parents were home. He didn't care to find out which it was. So he just headed up the creaky staircase and walked through the short hallway to his room. The doors slid open for him as he entered—one of the many technological designs he had created himself.

The door often mislead visitors into thinking they had walked into an extravagant lair or something but Ridian's lair was nothing special at all. Instead of decking out his walls in posters, it was clad in robot schematics, all the way up to the ceiling. They overlapped in some places too. This was only because he had nowhere else to store them.

While Ridian's brother Kariel had been saving up his money to buy a cool lair when he moved out, Ridian couldn't resist spending his money on cool new robot parts. Ridian only needed a little spark of an idea and some freedom and then he could do the rest. Or at least he liked to think he could. He had been building things ever since.

Ridian's room was a humble one though and so he didn't look all that impressive yet. But in his mind he knew he was. The gears were always turning in that little mind of his. His latest projects had been slightly steampunk in design, so maybe his style was taking a new term. All sorts of scattered parts lie untouched and dusty around his room but others were rearranged often. Ridian's room had an order to it though—even if he was the only one who knew it!

The dust was made evident when Ridian opened the blinds and he sighed. "I really need to clean up in here." He said to himself. Just then he heard the vacuum and he walked next door. Kariel's bedroom was symmetrical to Ridian's in size though its arrangement was entirely different. Kariel was into all sorts of dark stuff, especially purple fire, and his main job was haunting fireworks stores in the human realm.

Kariel had high hopes to go pro with the whole "evil pyro" shtick someday. He smiled as Ridian entered and shut off the vacuum momentarily so that he could hear his little brother. "Hello! Ridian, you're home! I didn't hear you float in!"

"Psh, yeah, no wonder." Ridian joked. "Hey, can I use that thing when you're done?"

Kariel nodded. "Sure, Ridian. Why don't you go back to your games for now?"

Ridian left at that. All he could do now was wait patiently in his room. Poor Kariel thought Ridian spent so much time in his room because he wanted to play video games. That was SO not true! But Ridian knew if he ever shared his technological genius with his brother, or even their parents, they'd steak his idea, as was the ghost way.

Stealing was socially accepted in the ghost zone. Stealing was also, however, one of the many things Ridian found unsettling about this realm he had called home for so long. He sat on the dark wooden floor of his bedroom, looking up at the pleasant blue lights on the ceiling. Ridian couldn't help but wonder if there was more to life than this, and if there was something else he had to be doing. But what?

Every time Ridian thought about it for too long, he got this sickly feeling in his stomach. But the moment he forgot about it, the nausea subsided. All Ridian needed was some distraction to muffle out that voice which was a conscience. Most ghosts had snuffed out their consciences as children but Ridian sometimes listened to his now and again without knowing it.

He started to feel sick again, but then Kariel phased through the wall with the bright red vacuum, and plopped it onto the floor. "Here ya go." Kariel said with a smile, and then phased out.

Ridian took the vacuum and began to clean up.

Meanwhile…Katalla hadn't gone inside to her own home yet. She just floated around a bit as she expected her family's homegrown garden in their backyard. Most backyards were empty but the Malita family's was botanical heaven. All sorts of strange exotic plants could be found there. Katalla sneaked some kind of purple and orange spotted fruit to eat as she flew into her bedroom through an outside wall.

She checked her calendar to make sure she hadn't missed a gym night, because it showed on the record when her membership's bill was sent to her house every month. And her parents would ground her if she missed even one day without an excuse. Katalla sighed gratefully, for she hadn't missed anything yet.

Katalla set her things down on her bed and began to unpack. She was left with a feeling of happiness and overall satisfaction from her weekend at Gray's. She and the others were all getting along extravagantly or so it seemed. She did worry a bit about Gray sometimes though, and had every reason to.

She just wished he'd let her and the others in on whatever bothered him sometimes. Maybe they could help. Maybe friendship would be way better for him than he thought. She sighed as she turned over on her pink bed sheets which were all made up nicely. Her bedroom was small and rectangular and the bed took up almost an entire wall by itself.

The desk at the other end of the room had a science book with Mr. Vortex's face on it which Katalla could have sworn was looking her directly in the eye. "Oh, fine." Katalla said to herself as she reluctantly dragged herself over to the desk.

Homework was only fun when Ridian was there to help. But alas, they had spent the whole weekend together so she did not want to bug him this quickly. She could handle a little by herself, right? One of Katalla's twin brothers slothfully entered her room and asked if she had been out with her boyfriend all weekend.

She replied, "I don't have a boyfriend."

The little boy sighed as he walked out. He and the other brother were constantly trying to trick Katalla into admitting she had a boyfriend so they could tease her about it relentlessly. Every time they did this, she just rolled her eyes or whatever. She never had a boyfriend before and hadn't given an actual relationship much thought. She just loved to flirt. She wasn't in it for the long term. Or…was she?


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Not too far away from Katalla and Ridian's island, there lived Azrael and his grandparents. The island Azrael called home was a small one, which had probably been chipped off another island hundreds of years ago. But Azrael didn't mind the seclusion, and oddly he didn't mind the company either. He was in that mixed-up stage of adolescence where he didn't exactly know what he wanted but knew he wanted something.

There was something out of life that Azrael had been craving but he just could not find it on his own. He didn't know when to concede or when to rebel; he didn't know when to shut people out or let people in. He never had let anyone in beforehand but now that he had made some friends in school, he was beginning to second-guess himself.

Azrael wondered if it would even last. What did they want from him? Every ghost wanted something. For now Azrael usually wandered around carnivals in the human realm to satisfy his mood. He went there sometimes just to break up friendships, so that those kids who came to the carnival by themselves did not feel so bad.

Today Azrael just did not feel like doing that. But this was the weekend, so it meant his grandparents were both home. He avoided interaction with them like he usually did. He had no siblings so there was no one to cause ruckus in their home. Daily life was pretty quiet. Azrael just went about his own business.

Azrael had never officially thanked his grandparents from rescuing him of the custody of his own parents—an abusive father and a psychotic mother. It was unknown if Azrael's mother became a psychopath because Azrael's father was abusive, or if Azrael's father lost his temper and became abusive because Azrael's mother was a psychopath. The whole thing was a messy terrible blur that Azrael did not wish to recall.

Because of his past, Azrael often thought of himself as never having a childhood. Whatever happened in teenhood was never enough to make up for that lost time. So Azrael felt that there would always be a big giant hole in his past which he could never fill. He tried to though, with haunting places and practicing his own sword fighting moves.

When he couldn't get out, all Azrael did was practice with his blades. He had several but carried no less than three on his person at all times. What else would he hide under that long jacket-like cloak he often wore? He took off his gloves to practice as he sparred with his retractable double-edged blade against an invisible foe.

Azrael was getting quicker with his strikes, stronger with his attacks, and lighter with his footwork. However rad of a fighter he was, he never felt like he would be good enough for actual combat. There was always some new attack pattern he could memorize. He often wondered what would happen one day if he was forced into an actual fight.

Zaid was certain all of his friends were home already though he himself had a long way to fly. Zaid had been born in the ghost zone but he lived in the human world. Why? He had run away from his lair in the ghost zone to live among humans. He visited home often. It wasn't his family he had wanted to avoid—he loved them—it was Walker's goons.

Walker's goons wanted every adolescent ghost to attend the school system in the ghost zone. Zaid was "legally" supposed to have attended the school on the island closest to the island where his family lived. As Zaid flew onwards—it was a bit of a ways still—he pondered his past and how he had come to this situation in life.

_But one afternoon when he was twelve and had been messing around, Zaid discovered a portal to thee human realm that was usually open. Zaid wondered, what idiot human would leave something like this open? It was an invitation for ghosts to come in to haunt their world. Zaid couldn't resist; he flew through. He noticed upon entering the human world that the family which guarded that portal were morons. _

_So Zaid continued on in his intangible flight. He only explored a little, for he did not want to get lost. Eventually he came to a poorer side of town, but hadn't realized it yet. He was growing tired of being intangible so he inadvertently revealed himself. Any human who saw Zaid hence felt scared of him. But likewise, ghosts who saw Zaid grew an interest._

_In a back alley, Zaid was cornered and rounded up by a bunch of older ghost teens who had also rebelled against Walker's rule and had claimed to grow stronger because of it. But they all looked like bad kids. Zaid wasn't a bad kid, was he? It didn't take much at all for them to convince Zaid to join them._

_That very same day, Zaid flew back with the high school age boys back to an old abandoned apartment which they haunted to keep the humans out. They made that place their lair and each one of the guys had a job there. They all worked together like one giant machine. Of course Zaid started with a room on the bottom floor and simple chores of cleaning up, but as the years passed, he earned himself higher ranks in their favor. _

_Zaid had even recruited a few guys younger than him too. As for the older ones, though they graduated human high school they didn't have anywhere else to go after that, which was a problem. Most of them stayed in the apartment which made them grow bit insane. But all was well, for some were able to get out and start fledgling businesses. _

_Zaid never told anyone, but he had no clue what direction his life was going. He didn't know what would happen when he got to that point, when he was suddenly too old-looking for school and had to choose another course in life. Till then, he just waited for some kind of luck that would even give him a hint as to how his future should plan out._

Zaid had reached his home in the human world apartment how and phased through the walls to get to his lair. All the doors in the building were locked because whoever actually owned the place probably had all the keys. But that sort of thing did not stop Zaid or any of the other ghosts. Zaid didn't bother to turn on the light as he floated around in search of his guitar.

Zaid's frustration piqued when he couldn't find it. Then he realized someone had flown in behind them. He turned around and there was a floating ghost girl of about thirteen years old holding his guitar. "Nova, you dummy, you scared me!"

The kid shrugged. "Sorry." She handed him his guitar. "You said I could borrow this today, remember?"

Zaid sighed. "Yeah, now I do." He said as he took it. "Though you still haven't told me why. No amount of practice would do _you_ any good."

Nova giggled. "I know. But at least I haven't lost my head. Why won't you tell anyone what's got you so frazzled lately? You're not your cool self."

"Well duhrr, Nova, I've been caught and thrown back to ghost school!" He barked.

"I mean, besides that." She replied quietly.

Zaid just sighed and turned around to put his guitar back where it belonged. In the darkness, Nova was surprised he could see anything at all. "Just get outta here, Nova. You're being a pest again." And at that the younger girl flew down to her own room on the ground level. Zaid was just grateful he knew how he was going to spend the rest of the day. He'd meet his friends Zippy and Cloud for parkour soon. At least there was ONE day he had planned for.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next few weeks of school flew by as Zaid and Azrael got to know their friends a bit better. Being in classes together helped them bond tremendously. Gray, however, felt like he was falling a bit behind. He was bored in the Guidance Counselor's office. Counselor Spectra saw Gray throw the first ectoblast in a fight with Youngblood who was in his grade. Youngblood just sat there to Gray's right, staring at him. Gray stared emotionlessly at Spectra. He knew there was nothing good that could come out of this.

Gray saw the assistant Bertrand staring at him condemningly, which showed that neither him nor Spectra would believe he had been taunted beforehand. Gray finally gave up and said, "Alright, what's it going to be?"

Spectra donned that cheesy fake smile of hers. "Sweetie, we're all just concerned for yourself here. Youngblood is an upstanding student and a model example to his peers. There's no reason to have to punch him. I'm afraid giving you a detention wouldn't do any good so I'm going to have to write you up a note to see the principal."

Gray cringed as Spectra got out her notepad. There was nothing worse than having to have a meeting with Walker! If the two of them were alone, Walker would kidnap him for sure and there would be no one who could question it, because Walker had made himself one of the most feared authorities in the ghost zone.

Gray had clammy hands as he went to lunch then, pulled out an empty tray, and sat with the four eleventh graders who were already there. He was asked why he didn't get anything to eat, but he didn't answer.

Ridian didn't quite get that there was something wrong so he just continued right on about his story of befriending this massive ghost falcon last night who flew beside his window. Katalla just sat contentedly twirling her hair as she ate. Zaid and Azrael no longer fought at all. In fact Azrael even smiled a few times and laughed at some of Ridian's pun jokes lately.

Zaid thought they were pretty lame, but he didn't state his opinion openly which showed that he cared about their feelings. Zaid was beginning to notice more and more about these people as he got to know them. So he definitely knew something in Gray's demeanor had changed. Instead of his usual quietness, he had a vibe of fear about him.

Zaid elbowed Gray in the gut, "Oh, spill it already."

Gray looked up at him as the other three got quiet all of a sudden. "I-I have to meet with Walker. But if I do that, he'll kidnap me." He whispered.

The others looked among each other, and no one had the right reply to this, except for Zaid. "Well, if Walker's after you, then you can't be all bad. I've got something against that guy too. And I know just the place you can go where he won't find you. The apartment complex I live in is full of older stronger ghosts. Sure Walker knows about it, but there are so many of us who live there that he wouldn't dare come pick a fight. Walker waits till you're alone."

The kid nodded. "Sure, I'd love to go there. To live there, I mean. A Walker-free zone? Fantastic…"

"It's in the human realm, ya know." Zaid replied. But that didn't seem to make any difference. So after school was over. Zaid flew home with Gray to help him gather up his things. Gray left a note for his sister, but he didn't mention where he was going. It would be best if she didn't know, so she wouldn't get in trouble with him if he was found out.

Zaid had the other half of Gray's bags gathered and the two of them were just about to take off from the island and make for the portal. But just then, Katalla and Ridian appeared there. "We kinda hate Walker too." Ridian explained. "He hasn't ever had a reason to come to our island before, but Katalla and I came to the same conclusion—what's going on isn't right. And if this is the only way to stand up against it, sobeit."

Zaid smiled. That was Ridian's way of proving he really did mean they were all in this together. Katalla smiled at Zaid as well. It was clear to see that she and Ridian did not have all of their bags but just what they could carry. Now Azrael knew nothing of this, but he was sure to discover when neither Zaid nor Gray showed up at school the next day.

Only Ridian and Katalla had shown their faces, but they were quieter than usual so as to keep themselves under the radar. Azrael immediately knew that something was up, but he wanted to figure it out on his own. Meanwhile Zaid had helped his friends move into his apartment. He and Gray had skipped school to setup, though Gray was certain he did not ever want to return there again. He had to evade Spectra.

Zaid was just glad his apartment was big enough for four people. There was only one twin bed in his room initially but he brought up another one from storage. They'd worry about who was going to share with Katalla later on. Last night they had all stayed up to move in. The last finishing touches had just been made. Now Zaid could finally relax for the first time since, well, he had been dragged into that ghost zone school.

In the end of it all, Zaid was kind of glad that he had been there to meet these new people he had come to call his friends. As long as nobody opened their mouths about them living here, this was sure to prove ideal. Zaid just hoped his other two friends were ready for life on the run. They might have to drop everything and just flee if Walker ever discovered that they had lived in the human realm.

It didn't even have to do with school anymore. Zaid hoped his friends could handle it if their lives were in danger. Meanwhile Azrael had figured out what happened, and he was angry that Ridian and Katalla hadn't told him about it. He felt embarrassed that he didn't come too, but the thought just never crossed his mind. The two tried to explain that it was just a spur-of-the-moment thought, but Azrael didn't care.

Azrael had a bit of a breakdown that night after school. He didn't care that Mr. Technus had complimented his work in computers class today. He didn't care that he had finally made friends. He felt like he had lost them somehow. He was overreacting because he had trust issues, but there was no way to tell that.

That night, Azrael took everything he cared about and flew off with it. They were going to run away? He was going to fly the coop too. Only now they had no idea where he was. And the funny thing was, neither did he. Azrael drifted through realm after realm in the ghost zone carelessly burning off steam at anyone who would get in his way.

All the while, Azrael got father and farther from his home and his portal. Someone was likely to chase him but they probably wouldn't be the kind of ghost he wanted to see. Azrael didn't care about any of that now. He just drifted until he landed on a frozen wasteland island he hadn't seen before. This place looked deserted, so it might be ideal for him to stop and make camp.

Azrael had no troubles with the cold at all. Unfortunately for him the place was far from deserted but it would take a while before any of the locals discovered him. He just sat there, thinking and wondering if those friends of his really did care about them. If they did, then they'd come and find him.

Back in the human world, Zaid paced around the apartment as Ridian and Katalla took turns sharing the story of what had happened with Azrael. Zaid was annoyed that the guy was just overreacting for attention probably. Who would be the key to fixing all of this?

While Zaid's three friends were thinking, he flew out to get some carry-out Nasty Burger meals for their dinners. Living together shouldn't be too hard, especially since Ridian and Katalla's parents were okay with it. Ghosts were far more lenient with their youths than human parents. Ghosts knew that other ghosts put their lives in danger at their own risk, which was just a naturally accepted unspoken rule.

Strangely Zaid's apartment didn't seem any smaller with his friends living there now. He did have to borrow some foldy chairs from someone next door though, but that was about it. There was one bathroom, a bedroom, and an office which had recently been converted to the other bedroom with the second twin bed. The office desk had been moved to the main room.

Nothing separated the kitchen from the living room except for the kitchen's yellow tile floor. A small blue card table set for four now leaned up against the kitchen wall. The whole place was surprisingly clean, and oddly enough, the electricity worked. There was no place or time for frivolous electronics like a television or a gaming system though—only lights.

The main living room window had a clear view to Casper High and Casper Middle School across the way. Both were schools which Zaid had attended and spent a good part in growing up at. He considered this a window to his past, almost. He missed going there. The cool breeze that blew in from outside of the cracked window wafted the smell of burgers into Zaid's nose and instantly his mind drifted back to the present time.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It had been days, and Gray awoke with a start. He was shaking, and he was terrified. He shook it off, pushing himself against the wall. He didn't want them to know he was scared, or that he was having nightmares. He started to hum Moonlit Sky, hoping to keep the memories stay at bay.

"I'm alright." He muttered. "I'm alright." He stood up and looked out the window, sighing. It was hard for him, but he would live. He had to be alright, for his sister. For himself.

"Hey, kid, you alright?" Zaid asked, leaning in the doorway. Gray shook his head, shaking off the thoughts he was feeling.

"I'm fine." He answered, trying to hold back the anger he was feeling towards Spectra, and Walker. "I just couldn't sleep, that's all." He lied.

"Alright, whatever you say kid." Zaid shook his head, leaving the room. He'd have to get Katalla; she seemed to be able to get Gray to open up.

Zaid got Katalla up, and she helped the nervous Gray. He was out of it. Throughout the days they'd been staying, Gray had been getting very little sleep, waking up in a cold sweat most nights, and would stay up the rest of the night. No one knew why, except Katalla. She seemed to know Gray a lot more than the others, and she would keep his secrets.

Ridian knew Gray well as well, but...Gray was like a younger brother who had something he wanted, needed to keep secret. And he kept it secret well. Whatever it was bothering him... they didn't know.

Zaid didn't know Gray like Katalla and Ridian, but he and the kid had developed a sibling relationship, and Zaid was worried about the younger ghost teen, who looked like he was never sleeping.

The sun rose on Sunday morning, 'Outta My Head' by Daughtry started to play, waking up Gray, who'd fallen asleep with his head rested against Katalla's shoulder. He sighed, inhaling slightly. He was not ready to get up. But he had got a job at Nasty Burger, so he would be going to go work there.

Katalla awoke later that morning, to see a note saying that Gray was at his job. She smiled, shaking her head slightly. He was the little brother of the group, he really was. So, the whole 'I've got a job at Nasty Burger' was surprising for him to say. But he wanted something to do; he was bored to be by himself. He lied to the manager, saying he was homeschooled, so he could get to work sooner than he would have otherwise. He could work different hours that way.

The group walked into the joint around lunch. Gray was behind the counter, taking orders as he swiftly glanced up at them, giving them a very dirty look, before getting back to work on the orders. Zaid snorted slightly, taking a booth, while the others joined him. Gray stalked over to them, taking their orders, before heading back over to the counter.

As the sun went down on Sunday night, Gray took off back towards the apartment. He had to hurry, if he wanted to get there before being spotted by another ghost.

Meanwhile Katalla had a dream.

_Gray shot into the cafeteria, he felt like there might have been a herd of ghost teens behind him. He was panting, hoping that they wouldn't catch up._

_"Sorry I'm late." He said, sliding into his seat besides Katalla. She rolled her eyes._

_"What did you do this time?" she asked him. He looked at her, his eyebrow raised. "You're right. I don't want to know." She chuckled, just before Skulker and the rest of the freshman gym class stormed in._

_"Get him." Skulker growled. Gray paled, before fading to invisible. He wouldn't be taken to the gym to be beat up in 'dodge ball'. Yeah, right. Like throwing a bunch of metal balls at a boy, who wasn't in protective armor wasn't torture._

_"He's not here." Ridian defended his friend._

_"Wherever the whelp is, I will find him." Skulker leant down, his glowing knife appearing underneath Katalla's chin. She paled slightly. Gray was tempted to come back, but he didn't._

_"We won't let you hurt him." She said._

_"You won't let me?"_

Katalla awoke to Gray opening the apartment door and sliding in. She yawned, waving at him. He nodded to her, heading into the bathroom to change into his pajamas. He lay down on the cot as he exited, and she knew he wouldn't be waking up unless a tornado tore through the apartment.

Morning came, yet again to 'Outta My Head', but this time, it was turned off, and the person who turned it off pet the sleeping blonde's hair, before letting him sleep peacefully. Ridian shook his head.

"I knew he'd sleep better near you." He murmured to Katalla. She nodded, smiling at the younger boy, sound asleep on the cot. She pulled the blanket up to his chin, and he mumbled, turning over.

"Yeah. I guess he sleeps better with someone around. Did you know he slept in the living room with his sister?" Katalla asked. He shook his head. He hadn't known.

"Is there a breakfast joint around here?" he asked. It was seven in the morning. The two of them were going to go out and get breakfast for the others.

"I don't know. Do you want to go look around?" she answered the question with a question. The two of them left the apartment, and Gray started to stir. Zaid entered the area that Katalla slept, seeing the youngest stirring slightly, he held back a chuckle, sitting down on the ground, turning the television on and smiling smugly.

Ridian and Katalla returned with eggs, hash browns, muffins and a few other assortments of breakfast foods. Gray had been awakened by Zaid at nine, and the Gray was actually rested. He was reading the next module in his science book as he sat at the table. The two older ghosts shook their heads, giving him a blueberry scone. He was finished in seconds, and was talking to himself about 'atoms' 'molecules' and 'electrolysis', while scribbling down answers swiftly into his notebook.

"Science geek." Katalla teased him. He rolled his eyes and continued to work on science.

The afternoon had come, and Zaid was sent to look for Gray, who had vanished after he had done his schoolwork.

"Kid!" he shouted, looking for the younger ghost.

"They're coming for me."

Zaid whipped around.

"Last night, I saw Skulker, and Mr. Technus, the two of them said they were looking for me."

"Great." Zaid muttered. He knew the kid was worried; he didn't want to be caught by Walker, taken into custody. "What are you going to do?"

"Leave. Travel the world. Maybe go to China or England, I hear there might be ghost problems in those areas. Maybe I can help with that." Gray answered.

"Katalla and Ridian will want to follow you."

"So?" Gray asked. "If they want to come, than they can come."

Zaid leaned forward to hear the last bit, which had been in a whisper.

"We're not letting you go alone, kid. If you have to leave, then we'll be by your side till the end."

Gray started packing in a rush, not listening to the others, who were also packing. They would start the flight in two days' time, if he heard more people looking for him. If he didn't, then they would stay on stand guard. If they heard a single ghost looking for him, then they'd be gone.

* * *

><p><strong>Please review!<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Pizza was that night's dinner. It was a large, but it wasn't as good as Leah's homemade, not a lot of things were as good as they were homemade. The four teens kept silent, though the words that everyone wanted to say hung over like a dark, heavy cloud. It was horrifying, none of them knew how to say it, but they knew they'd be on the run again soon.

Gray tossed and turned in his cot, before sighing. He would go for a walk, and if he got into trouble, he'd return swiftly.

He saw a familiar person floating up above.

"Nova?" he asked, he'd been walking for five, six minutes. Gray looked up at the younger teen. Gray sighed, smacking himself. He was going to take a deep breath, and hope for the best. He opened his eyes. And Nova was still there. He didn't really get to know the neighbors much but Zaid mentioned Nova often because she visited a lot. Slowly, Gray turned around, and started back towards the apartment complex. Walker was after him, so if Nova was there, who knew how many other ghosts were in the vicinity?

Nova followed the kid back towards the apartment complex, as the young boy ran up the stairs towards one of the apartments. He opened the door, to see Katalla asleep on the couch, Ridian and Zaid on the two twin beds, and a cot pulled out, on which Nova could see Gray had been sleeping.

"Nova?" Zaid asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. Nova nodded slowly. "I'm going back to sleep." He muttered, closing his eyes.

The first Tuesday of summer vacation started with Nova explaining how he had come to live in the building, while Gray tried his best to not say anything like 'sorry' 'my fault' or 'I'm an idiot'. He failed at that. Miserably. Really, he did.

Lunch was at Nasty Burger as Zaid found out what had happened the last few days. Gray was eating as if he hadn't in days, which wasn't all that strange. He ate a lot. The group talked softly, ignoring the stares they were getting, for the strange colored hair, the strange colored skin, etc. etc.

They were used to it, being watched by people who thought they looked strange. They ignored the looks.

"Alright. So if we do leave, where are we going to go?" Ridian asked.

"China or England. I heard there are a lot of ghosts there. Thought we could help out." Gray said around a mouthful of meat. The others nodded, understanding the mumbling.

"Alright." Katalla stopped before glancing at Gray. "Could you chew with your mouth closed please?" she asked. He nodded, closing his mouth while he chewed. He started to hum, something by Skillet, and the others all shook their heads at him. He smiled faintly while he continued to hum loudly.

A week had passed without any warning of Gray being looked for. They all believed themselves safe. The days were hot, and peaceful. They hadn't had such good days; it felt like it had been forever since they'd been not worrying. More often than not, the group would spend time by themselves, trying to find some reason to not leave. The summer holidays were not even half way over, and they couldn't find any reason to stay.

"It's pointless." Zaid finally snapped, throwing his hands up in the air. "If we can't find a single reason to stay, then we leave."

"It's not that easy." Gray said, bringing their attention to him. "What about your families?" he asked, and the others shared unsure looks. "If you guys leave, than Walker will just take your family, and he might us to return for their sakes." He had a valid point.

"But if we don't leave, than what will happen to you?" Katalla asked. "What if he finds where you are? He might follow you to work and take you then!"

"Then...Leah's toast." He shrugged, but the flash of fear on his face was all they needed to see.

Ridian stepped forward. "We're leaving as soon as there's word that they're sending out a search party for you." He said, laying a hand on the youngest in the groups shoulder.

Gray looked up, before sighing. "Fine. But...you guys know you don't have to come with me, you know?" he asked.

The days flew by in the minds of the teens. Mornings, evenings and all the time in between became habit, jumping at the sound of crunching footsteps. Gray was the most jumpy of the group; he didn't know why he was so jumpy.

He wasn't sleeping. He wasn't eating. Katalla was trying to not panic for him, but he was getting to such the point, if he heard someone cracking their knuckles, he'd jump and the temperature would start to rise; he was ready to fight.

"He needs to eat." Ridian muttered as Zaid nodded.

"And sleep." Katalla said. "We have to find some way to get him to do it." She was pacing. He was in danger, and he was terrified.

"How would we do that?" Ridian asked. The kid was sitting in the living room, shuddering. His pale skin was becoming paler by the minute.

"How am I supposed to know?" Zaid snapped. The others stared at him. He rolled his eyes, waving it off. "Look, can we order a pizza?" he demanded. Finally, the others nodded. Ridian picked up the phone and ordered swiftly.

Later, Gray had a nightmare.

_The sound of footsteps echoed. Gray walked down the empty hallway at the school, looking for his friends. He was muttering to himself, the words he didn't know what the words were though. Music someone would expect in a tragedy played in the background, but he ignored it. He felt a stinging against his neck, and fell to the ground._

_Gray tossed and turned, sitting up. A pair of hands wrapped around his neck seconds later. He stared into two blood red eyes. Walker had him, and he was terrified. Absolutely terrified._

_"Let him go!" Katalla screamed from where she had been tied up. Walker turned, and his lips twitched._

_"Let him go? Why should I? I have his sister. Well, her body. All of the ectoplasm was drained from it a few days ago after all."_

_"NO!" Gray screamed, struggling against the pressure on his neck._

_"Start with the girl. Drain her ectoplasm." Walker ordered one of his men. Gray struggled as a gag was placed over his mouth. He felt like breaking down crying, but he couldn't. Not with the other's lives on the line._

_"Yes sir." A familiar voice said. Gray lifted his head, being pinned against the wall seconds later. A hooded figure put a device against Katalla's neck._

"GRAY!"

He awoke to being shoved off of the couch onto the floor. He calmed down slightly, but the dream left the bad feeling in his mind. It was horrifying.

"You were struggling in your sleep."

"I-it's not important." Gray stuttered. "I'll be alright." He shook it off, trying to fake a smile. Zaid wasn't buying it. He sighed, his shoulders sagged. "Just a nightmare." He said, shaking his head. His red eyes looked down at the floor.

Another day passed, and the group ate breakfast. They'd heard word that Gray was being hunted again, so they were going to get their stuff, some supplies, and the like. Someone was supposed to be with Gray at all times.

Morning was filled with tenseness, and as Ridian ate, he watched Gray, who was humming a song none of them knew. It was something by Glenn Miller, they assumed. But that was all they assumed. Zaid could tell that Gray was scared, but he wasn't saying anything. He wouldn't, not until he did need too. He knew the younger boy better than Gray thought, or better than Ridian and Katalla assumed he would.

After breakfast Gray packed up his cot, putting it inside his suitcase. He then looked for his school books. He may be going on the run, but he still wanted to learn as much as he could. Katalla thought he was crazy. The others did as well.

"But if I don't know as much as I can, how will I get on in life?" he asked when he was asked why he was bringing all of the books. The others shook their heads. He was crazy.

It was mid-afternoon, and the group was at the apartment. Zaid was talking to Nova. He was going to use his guitar and had asked for the return of said guitar.

Katalla and Ridian had gone shopping, while Zaid stayed at the apartment, looking around. It would be a few hours before the four of them got back to being together. Bullet smirked, pulling a phone to his ear as he possessed some random person.

"The kid is alone. I repeat. The kid is alone." He said, hanging up and leaving the poor man.

Gray had gone to the park, he haunted places like where he had died, causing people to get themselves hurt, like tripping over a branch and cutting their knee on a sharp stone. Nothing fatal, he didn't want to hurt someone that badly.

Gray was sitting up in the trees, watching as some of the kids fell and got themselves hurt, before running crying to their mothers. He needed to be free from the others for a while, to just think. He wasn't going to get a chance like this again for a while, so he would think as much as he could, while causing minor injuries to the others below.

"Mommy! GHOST!" a little boy screamed. Gray whipped around as he saw the Box Ghost shoot past. He sighed, relaxing. He closed his eyes, leaning against the tree for a moment. He started to snooze a little, feeling the summer heat through the leaves of the tree.

He was completely at peace. Something he hadn't been since he had left the Ghost Zone. He heard children laughing down below, and mothers calling for their children so they could leave. He felt a hand on his shoulder; he opened his eyes, expecting Katalla, or Ridian.

"Hey kid. Ready to go?" It was Bullet. Gray was about to scream, as a hand went over his mouth, muffling his scream.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Meanwhile over in the ghost zone, Azrael had been on a most interesting excursion. The place he had landed and wound up in he learned to call the land of the Far Frozen, an island which was inhabited by monstrous yeti ghosts. The natives of this island realm looked scary at first but when Azrael showed no fear in interacting with them, they revealed themselves to be a rather hospitable race.

Their leader, Frostbite, had taken a liking to Azrael and let him live in his ice castle. Azrael was well taken care of on this island, more so than he ever had been at home. Azrael felt welcome there among Frostbite and his people and for sure he could have gotten used to the cold if he had to stay for a long while. Extreme temperatures didn't affect ghosts as strongly as they did humans.

One morning when Frostbite was rambling to Azrael about human fragility over a warm meal, Azrael had gotten rather bored of it and asked, "Why are you beating around the bush so much all of a sudden?" He regretted that immediately, hoping that he hadn't been rude to his kind and generous host. "S-sorry. I didn't mean that…"

Frostbite grinned ever so slightly as he took a sip out of his glass. "No, no, you got it. I was definitely beating around the bush, as you might call it. I'm still trying to figure out why you're here. I don't mind you being here at all, but the fact is, you haven't exactly told me what brought you along this way."

Azrael sighed. He had been putting it off as long as he could. How long had he been here, weeks? It would be summer right about now, so he didn't even have to worry about school anymore did he? Well, he had made it this far and almost certainly it had become a problem since he hadn't attended school for the final exams.

But if Frostbite turned Azrael loose because of his past, he'd have to become a nomad again and get a job like kids his age did. He proceeded to explain exactly who he was and why he had left, and Frostbite seemed to understand as much as he needed to.

The ending result was that Frostbite said, "You can stay here as long as you like. I'm not going to kick you out and neither will my people. But here's the thing you must consider—is there someplace that you NEED to be?"

Frostbite's questioned echoed into the very back of Azrael's consciousness. He looked down, as he couldn't produce a reply right then and there. There was no excuse he could have given to explain himself, which was why he kept silent. Azrael didn't stay longer than one more day because what Frostbite had told him had never left his head. Azrael didn't even think it would until he left this place.

Azrael didn't have much to pack up but with what little he did, he set off, after thanking Frostbite thoroughly. That adventure had left Azrael cooled off in more ways than one. But he warmed up a bit as he drifted over to a new place not too far away. It was a floating island like there were plenty of in the ghost zone; only it looked like a gigantic melting pot.

The island was a natural valley inlet which was a vat filled with a bunch of boiling reddish yellow lava. Azrael warmed himself up in the steam that rose from the surface as he flew overhead of it. The island seemed to be deserted. Next, he headed towards a very unique-looking island off in the distance.

This island had large purple rock structures of uneven natural spires. It was one of the most exotic things Azrael had seen as of yet in the ghost zone. There were so many wonders around and Azrael couldn't believe he had missed it all while he was cooped up inside his own house. He had a big itch to see the world now.

Azrael still hadn't stopped thinking about what Frostbite said the whole time. No matter how far he got, by the end of the day in the evening, he was still alone. Azrael might have made it all the way out here but for what purpose? To run away? He realized that if he lost those new friends he had just made, it would be his fault entirely, not theirs.

Azrael sighed to himself as he realized this. He had to backtrack or take a shortcut somehow to get back to them. But where did they live again? Azrael thought back to his memory. He thought visiting the island where Ridian and Katalla lived would be his best bet, since it was the only description he could remember clearly now.

Though he had spent the night at Gray's house, he didn't remember how he had gotten there. And besides, Ridian and Katalla were the two people most likely to listen. As for Zaid, he was indeed a mystery to them all. Azrael didn't even know where the guy lived, but he seemed sketchy enough. He wanted to learn more about him, but he still didn't know whether or not he considered Zaid to be a threat still.

Azrael was weird often when interacting with people. Anyone smart enough to even come close to figuring him out would result in outright panic, and Azrael hated when it happened nonetheless. Azrael couldn't trust any of them just yet, either. Besides, he had many blades with him that hadn't met any good foes yet.

Even so, Azrael continued, only he took a different route that would hopefully take him to a place that he recognized faster. He passed many floating doors that could have transported him to a farer place, but there was no way of telling exactly where he would end up or if he would get back. He resisted the temptation.

No matter how far he got, he kept flying and flying in through the nighttime. The ghosts slept but Azrael felt like he was in a waking dream. His eyes drooped but he forced them open. He had a bad taste in his mouth. What was it called? Hunger. He wandered till he got to someplace he knew, or at least, _sort of_ knew.

Azrael kept going though. He didn't stop a moment too soon when he set foot on the island. He had passed up many places, but this…it was something he just couldn't miss. It was a place only the very fortunate or the extremely unfortunate got too see. It was the lair of one called Clockwork, who was debatably one of the most powerful ghosts in the ghost zone.

But his island shifted places, which was something Azrael didn't know. If Azrael stayed on it for too long, he might find himself in an entirely new location without even knowing how. He poked around a bit to see if the caretaker of the estate was home. Clockwork lived and worked alone, though his Observants sometimes visited so that they could learn from him and assist him. Gears shifted and mechanisms churned, but there were no signs of life anywhere around.

Azrael wondered what he could find around the exterior of the place, since he had presumed the entrances to be locked. When he didn't find anything, he just continued onward in his journey, though heavy with disappointment. If only the others were here, then he wouldn't feel so depressed. They had helped him to see that the world was not as dark and dreary of a place as Azrael had tricked himself into believing for so many years.

Ridian and Katalla believed the world was a vast place with many culturally rich realms and species, all filled with this lifeblood of hope that kept them going. That lifeblood ran strong in Ridian and Katalla but Azrael wondered if he had any of it at all. A few more days passed in Azrael's lonely journey. He had not stopped to get a job, because he knew he could not stay anywhere for too long.

However one guy did pay him in food to take some pictures of his swords, and that was the fuel that Azrael had flown on. Azrael continued until he came to the area of a neighborhood filled with ghost children who stunk profusely. He avoided the residents discretely. But at least he had a general idea of where he was now.

Then he followed in the direction where he saw Katalla travel home once. He saw a ghost that looked like Zaid, with black and red hair and everything, and called out to him. "Zaid!" Azrael flew on, but nobody answered. "Zaid? Come back here Zaid, you know I've seen you…" Azrael called.

The guy turned around and showed Azrael a confused face. He was much younger than Zaid, maybe around fourteen or so.

Azrael was instantly embarrassed and mad at himself. "Sorry, dude, I thought you were someone else…" He muttered, and then flew away quickly. Azrael sighed to himself. "I wonder…if there is any hope left for me after all, that is, if the rest of the people in the world haven't greedily gobbled it all up."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Meanwhile the real Zaid was back at his apartment, just chilling in his spare time. He, Ridian, and Katalla were prepared to leave on a whim if Gray said they needed to. Zaid was never the "loyal" type of person, and didn't really want to leave. Just now Zaid had finally begun to get comfortable again in his home, and was surrounded by friends.

Zaid was pleased that he, Ridian, and Katalla had gotten jobs to work over summer break—Ridian and Katalla at the ice cream shop and Zaid at the local theater store. Zaid loved his workplace because it was a gigantic warehouse filled with all sorts of special effects like fog machines and swirly electric balls that made creepy light shows, as well as all kinds of masks and costume makeup and authentic-quality looking costumes themselves.

Zaid knew that when he was a kid, the first thing he would have done in the store is run straight for the set stuff though. The stage prop getup in the back was huge and it was like a maze. There were building parts in it and so many wonderful places to hide in or wait to jump out and scare people, which Zaid hadn't done yet but wanted to try. He would be pretty good at it.

Zaid knew that if he and his friends ever needed a place to run and hide from an enemy, this store would be perfect. Also Zaid believed his friends would revel in him for such a heroic thought. Zaid had begun to want to be seen as a hero to them, though he didn't know how. Zaid had to keep that in mind for the future, no matter what happened.

Presently, Zaid had just gotten off work.

Zaid walked into the apartment, and he was looking for his friends.

"Has Gray come back yet?" asked Katalla, appearing at Zaid's side seconds later. They shared looks of worry.

"No. I heard he was going to the park. Did you look for him?" he answered her. She paled a slight bit; her already pale skin became so much more so.

"We did. But we couldn't find him!" she cried, throwing her hands up in the air in worry. Ridian appeared as well, and he too looked worried.

"He's not at Nasty Burger, nor is he anywhere else I've looked!" Ridian said in a single breath. Zaid shook his head.

"Katalla, you look through the skies. Ridian, you look around downtown. I'll take the rest. If we can't find him, we'll take to the ghost zone to search." Zaid ordered. They nodded, phasing through the floor, heading towards their areas.

Ridian looked through the downtown. The mall, Nasty Burger, etc. etc. He hadn't found anything of importance, other than a poem from Gray that he had thrown out a few days earlier after he had gotten off work.

He noticed security cameras, and downloaded them swiftly to look at later. He was thinking to see if his friend was on the cameras.

Katalla took to all the places she decided she thought she could find her friend. She was worried, her worry was growing every second. She flew through the taller buildings, looking for any sign of him.

"Great." She muttered, landing on the rooftop.

Ridian landed seconds later, he was frowning. "I couldn't find him either." He said, understanding that she hadn't found him. He sighed, pinching his nose. "This is unbelievable." The female ghost nodded.

Zaid searched through the alleyways and the area around the school. He found nothing of use, so he went towards the park.

Zaid looked around the park, looking for something. Anything. Katalla and Ridian joined him and were looking around the park.

Katalla noticed a tree with broken branches and that kind of thing. Her eyebrows furrowed as she shot up the tree, and saw a dark blue ripped cloth splotch. She gasped, worry in her body.

They returned to the apartment and Ridian turned on the videos he had downloaded. He pinched the bridge of his nose as the videos showed nothing of consequence. They were getting angry. It wasn't taking them anywhere.

"Maybe he'll come back." Katalla finally spoke, the worry in her voice evident.

"That is, if he's not taken captive." Zaid growled. The other two stared at him, glares were on their faces. "Sorry." He put his hands up in front of himself.

"Whatever." Ridian muttered under his breath. The three of them got angrier and more worried as every second passed. A blurry picture passed over the screen, but the blue hoodie was familiar enough.

"Bullet." Katalla mumbled, pointing to the man holding Gray in the video. "Bullet has Gray." She finished.

Meanwhile in the ghost zone, Azrael had decided on going through a portal. He didn't know where it would take him but anywhere had to be better than where he was. Azrael flew out of a portal and touched down on the ground. He looked around; the large city loomed over him. He didn't know where he was, but he knew that he was on earth.

The city people didn't speak English. They spoke Chinese, so he found out quite quickly that he couldn't understand their rapid speech. He was going to head back towards the portal when he heard a scream from a little girl. He cringed and took off in that direction. He saw a ghost attacking a school trip. A little girl, human, American, had screamed, and she was wearing a pink jacket. There were a group of teachers, trying to fend off the ghost.

Azrael launched at the ghost attacking the group. The students pulled themselves into a small group, as the girl in pink pulled a sword up in front of her. She was shaking and frightened, but she was ready to fight. A boy from her group had a sword in his hands seconds after the girl. The two shook.

"W-we can take it from here." The boy said, speaking for himself and the girl. Azrael nodded, curious about how the two children would protect themselves, and those around them.

"We can." The girl agreed, pulling another sword from her back. The two children, probably seven years old, both had two swords in their hands in seconds.

He found yet another portal, and re-entered the ghost zone, this time though there was a door. It was tall, green, and had the letter 'D' on the middle of it surrounded by red swirling.

"I would not suggest opening that door." The ghost named Clockwork mysteriously appeared behind Azrael. "She does not care for visitors, especially now."

"Alright. Which door do you suggest then?" Azrael asked sarcastically. A new door appeared, this time, there were more than one letter.

"You may go through this one if you wish to see that those two children are still alive." Clockwork said. Azrael slowly nodded, entering the door.

The girl was sound asleep on a couch, wrapped up in a dark red blanket with a pink trim. The boy was on the floor, also sound asleep, but his blanket was dark blue with a dark brown trim. Two blonde adults, their mother and father, Azrael assumed, watched the two young children.

Azrael exited the portal and went through the last door.

He looked around London as the portal closed behind him. People were talking quickly and milling about. He didn't talk, he sped through them as he was not really there. He was invisibly moving through the people.

Music was playing from one of the stores he passed, the music he didn't know, but it sounded like something that Gray would listen too. It was loud, and jazz music, which he had learnt, listening to the music Gray would listen too during and after school.

Laughter from two kids gained his attention. The two kids were laughing about something, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The boy looked familiar, but he wasn't that familiar, so he didn't pay attention to them for long.

The jazz music was slow and sweet, but it was also loud so people could hear the music. He entered the cafe, and gaped. There were people talking, spending time with each other instead of spending time eating and getting out as fast as they possibly could.

It looked like a scene out of time itself. There were booths where there were families talking, laughing, making jokes.

Everything seemed so perfect. The jazz music was softer inside than outside, so Azrael thought to take a bar stool.

"What would you like?" a waitress asked. He opened his mouth, not sure of how to answer that. "Do you need a menu?" he nodded. She gave one to him, and he quickly started to read over the whole menu. He ordered minutes later, and the waitress smiled as she went off to get his milkshake.

Azrael toured London, fighting ghosts who hurt people, helping people. He didn't know why he was doing it, or anything like that, but he felt like he was doing the right thing.

There was a group of kids who had been attacked by a group of older kids, and Azrael had helped the younger kids get away while the older kids were caught by the police as they were all gang members and had been cornering young kids to force them to join their gang. Azrael had saved those kids from being forced into the gang.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Meanwhile, Katalla sighed as she paced. No news about Gray had come in since the boys had left. She was told to stay at the apartment in case Gray had gotten free from Bullet. But she just paced there; she had nothing to do while she waited.

Ridian was going to search the east side of the ghost zone while Zaid was taking the west. They'd meet up and take the north and south when they finished their search, before coming back if they couldn't find him at all. And if they couldn't, they'd plan to go in and break into the prison.

Katalla was starting to get irritated, as well as worried. The boys had been gone for four hours, and she was getting tired of just sitting there, waiting, watching. She was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.

She was unhappy. It was quite obvious in her opinion that they would have to go and save her friend from the prison. She sighed, pinching her nose as she started to pace yet again.

Wherever he was now, Azrael inhaled as he looked for a place for himself to stay for the night. He yawned, leaning against the wall.

"Hey, You!" he turned to see a boy, older this time. He was the familiar boy from the street. "Need a place to stay for the night?"

"Um..."

"C'mon. I'm staying at an apartment nearby." he said.

He awoke alone in the apartment the girl had taken him to. He was gone, and had left a note saying he had to go shopping for school supplies before he was going to go America. He was free to stay at the apartment until he no longer needed too.

He stared at the note and the curled writing, which was L.R. in the large, beautiful handwriting. He shook his head, tucking the letter away, planning to look for the girl later.

Azrael looked around the large apartment, and found quite a few things he thought strange. He shook it off; he didn't need to think about that kind of thing. He went to the streets again, keeping the key in his pocket in case he decided to go back to the apartment. But he didn't know if would be going back. If he didn't, he'd find a way to send the key to the boy, L.R. He flew back to the apartment then.

Katalla opened her eyes as Ridian shoved her shoulder. "Pinky, we've searched the whole zone. Gray is nowhere to be found." Ridian mumbled, pressing his hand against the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry." Katalla nodded sadly as Zaid entered.

"We have to look for him. We really do." She said, standing up. The other two shared looks. They nodded finally, seeing the distraught look on her face.

"We will find him." Zaid promised. Katalla sighed, nodding her head slightly.

Meanwhile Azrael slowly looked around London, his eyes taking in the sights of the city. Music came from most of the stops he passed by. He thought about singing along, though he didn't know the words to the song from the restaurant he entered.

_Walls close around me,_

_Keeping me in place,_

_Keeping me from growing,_

_Keeping me from knowing what I'm doing_

_Don't let these walls close in on me_

_Don't let me fall as the walls shove me down_

Azrael sat down at a table as a waiter came and gave him a menu. The loud rock boomed over the radio, and Azrael got to work as he started to eat.

That night, Azrael dropped into a bed inside the apartment. He didn't know why he had stayed here. He would move on in the morning, but for now, he stayed in the comfortable bed with nice warm sheets, that sort of thing.

In the morning, Azrael zoomed through the city towards the airport, planning to go to America as quickly as he could. He had a passport made, no one questioned his strange skin color or his strange eye color. He would get there…somehow.

Meanwhile, Ridian landed on a small island, sighing. He bowed his head and muttered to himself as he waited for Zaid to come. He had looked through the part of the ghost zone he said he would, and he didn't know how long it would take for Zaid to come to him.

He suspected Katalla was getting bored. Very bored. And probably hungry. So he wanted to find Gray and bring him home and soon. Zaid soared through the air towards where Ridian was going to meet him, feeling like he had punched in the stomach. Repeatedly. Gray was nowhere to be found, and he was wondering if they were ever going to find the youngest in their group.

Ridian paced as he and Katalla waited for Zaid's return. He didn't know how long Zaid would take. Katalla watched him pace back and forth.

"You're going to wear a hole in the floor." She mumbled, watching after his pacing. Her head moved from one side to another. He stopped, moving from one foot to another, and Katalla groaned. "You are impossible." She muttered.

"Sorry, Pinky. But..."

"I know." She answered.

Suddenly Ridian lifted his head, staring off into space as he felt pain. He knew it wasn't coming from his body, so he didn't do anything about it, until the pain intensified. He could feel the burning, deep in his body.

"What's wrong, Ridian?" Katalla asked, putting her hand on his shoulder. He held his stomach in pain as it started to get worse and worse.

Minutes passed and the pain stopped, but Katalla had to hold him as he shuddered. He tried to move but hissed again. Imaginary blood covered his chest for a few seconds before stopping and vanishing seconds later.

"I-I don't know." He mumbled, choking slightly.

Eventually Zaid awoke on the couch with Katalla and Ridian staring down at him. He sighed, struggling to get up. He had gotten into two fights, and was sore from them. The fights had ended with him getting kicked in the back, and a foot to the back of his head. Somehow he had ended up back at the apartment but he didn't know how.

In another location which was unknown at the moment, Gray opened his eyes, closing his eyes again seconds later at the horrific sight above him, bloodied weapons. They weren't used on him, he knew, because if they had been, that would've meant that the blood would've been green. It was red.

"We have the kid, sir." Bullet's familiar voice echoed through the area. "Should we send the footage to his sister?"

"Not yet." Walker answered. He entered the cell, looming over the young ghost. His foot was pulled back, and seconds later it was put into his stomach. Gray screamed in pain, hoping someone, anyone, could hear him. "Bring me the knife with the black handle." A rather large knife was brought forward, and Gray screamed again as it was placed into his stomach.

Gray awoke to being shocked, a stench surrounded him and he wasn't feeling good. He opened his eyes again, and felt bile rising up his throat. He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn't seem to get the horrific scenes that were filling his eyes.

Gray took a labored breath and blood spurted out of his mouth. He heard footsteps and choked. He tried to stand up, and to get away from the door. He slid backwards into the corner. He felt pained.

"Start the cameras." Walker ordered. Gray closed his eyes as pain filled him yet again. "Alright, Name. You turn yourself in, your brother goes free. Got it?" The kicks, punches and gashes that were covering him made him wonder if they were going to get even more hurt.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He screamed as the crowbar hit him. Red eyes glared down at Gray.

"Finish him if his sister doesn't appear by midnight."

Meanwhile, Ridian felt sick at his stomach suddenly, and the other two watched him shake as he shoved his breakfast away from him. He paled slightly as he gagged repeatedly.

"I think Gray's in trouble." He finally mumbled, retching again.

Zaid and Katalla pulled Ridian onto his bed as they watched him retch, as blood appeared on his body. Katalla yawned.

"Go to sleep, Pinky." Zaid ordered her. She nodded and slowly trudged over to the couch. She plopped down and Zaid watched her for a second longer before he turned back to the boy who was bleeding.

In a more pleasant place, Azrael looked down at the ocean below him, smiling at it. He didn't know why, but he was feeling more optimistic than he had since he had been on the run. He yawned, closing his eyes. The movie on the screen was drawing to a close. He turned music on as he put the earphones over his ears. Music that Gray would listen to started to play. 'In The Mood' by Glenn Miller was the first that he heard.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Gray awoke to being hit over the head, repeatedly. He wanted to throw up. But he couldn't. He was in pain. A lot of pain. His eyes stared at the roof. He wanted to cry. He wanted to die again. He wished his life over.

Katalla would never know that he thought of her as more than a friend. Ridian would never know that he was the brother he never had, the sibling he never would be able to tell anyone he thought of them as his family. They were his real family. His real family and he didn't know if he would be able to tell them ever.

After a few hours of the torture, Gray closed his eyes as he felt a pair of arms wrap around him minutes later.

"Stay quiet." Came a whisper. He wanted to open his eyes so bad, but the stinging filled him as he tried. "Hey, eyes closed kid." Gray kept his eyes closed.

"We need to clean him up, and soon." Another voice whispered. "Let's get him out of here. Now."

"Right, Ridian."

Meanwhile, Azrael looked down at the ocean from the plane. He saw a streak of smog, but disregarded it as not important. He looked back again, and saw a missile. He touched the side of the plane, and the wall became intangible. As the missile went through, screams came from everyone around. He saw a woman holding her wrist, blood coming from a gash in her arm.

He didn't want to cause problems. If it was the Guys In White, he would be endangering them all. So, he did what he thought best. He phased out of the plane. They were going over Canada and he decided to walk and fly back towards Amity Park, where he was sure his friends were. The forests were dense, green and beautiful. They were not covered in snow, and the sun hit the branches.

Azrael started his trek to Amity. It would take a few days, but he would be walking faster than a normal human would, and he was glad he was a ghost so he could fly sometimes too.

"Hey! Kid!" A boy's voice shouted. Azrael whipped to look upwards, seeing a boy in the tree. He had green hair kept up in a ponytail, and he looked tired. Azrael raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna get kinda hungry, my friend."

"I'm not your friend, and I know for certain I am not hungry." Azrael snapped in reply. He glared at the boy.

"Well, bud," The kid continued, "Some companions of mine and I have a nice little place to eat and sleep. Ya can sleep there tonight, what do ya say to that, eh?" He asked, lifting one of his eyebrows.

"Um..." Azrael started, before the boy put his fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly. He stopped.

"Get him back to the cave for food, water and sleep!" the kid in the tree shouted. Azrael paled as he started to run off, before a group of kids, wearing clothes like Robin Hood's Marry Men surrounded him.

"Got it Boss!" the kids shouted.

Back in Amity Park, Gray was laid down on the couch as the others started to remove his clothes.

"Katalla, get him some fresh clothes." Zaid ordered as the bloodied body of the youngest of the group was cleaned up a bit. His destroyed sweatshirt was taken off, and his converse were taken off, before being tossed in the trash.

Katalla slid into the bathroom, opening up Gray's drawer. She found two blue sweatshirts and a bunch of red and blue tees, along with a bunch of jeans. She picked them up and zipped back out. She handed the boys the clothes, before looking away from Gray's broken form.

"Go to the store and get some wrappings for this." Zaid said offhandedly. Katalla nodded, running out of the apartment as fast as she could, feeling sick at the smell of the blood that filled the apartment.

Zaid slowly cleaned the wound on Gray's stomach. He'd only been gone three days, but it looked like he had been tortured for weeks. Blood covered almost every section of his torso. He felt sickened.

"How did this happen to him?" Zaid muttered under his breath.

_The two teenagers entered the ghost zone from one of the natural portals, heading towards the prison as fast as they could go._

_They were panicking, they could hear screams as they approached. Zaid started to feel sick at his stomach, the screams were from many areas, males, females._

_Slowly Zaid edged towards the prison. He nodded to Ridian, who nodded in reply. The two of them hit the guards over the heads, covering their mouths. They had thirty minutes to get to Gray and get him out._

_"Go!" Ridian mouthed to his friend. The two shot into the hallway, running towards the torture chambers, where they had assumed Gray would be. They were right, sadly, and found a crumpled, tortured Gray. Zaid slipped his arms beneath the bleeding boy._

_"Stay quiet." Zaid whispered. Gray tried to open his eyes, and when he did, a green film stood over them. The two older boys cringed. "Hey, eyes closed kid." Zaid ordered the younger boy, who mumbled something about Katalla. The two boys shared looks again, this time they understood why._

_"We need to get him cleaned up, and soon." Ridian whispered, shaking his head. "Let's get him out of here. NOW."_

_"Right Ridian." Gray passed out as he started to gurgle. He looked more and more pale by the second._

_Zaid and Ridian had to become invisible repeatedly as they passed the guards._

_"No...mom..." the two boys shared looks, the younger boy started to thrash. "MOM!"  
>He screamed. Zaid put his hand over Gray's mouth. The two guards whipped towards his cell, and nodded, taking off towards.<em>

_The boys exited the portal and had to walk the rest of the way back as Gray started to roll over, his wounds starting to gush blood._

Zaid wiped the sweat off of his forehead, before he started to wrap the wounds. He sighed; the pale boy was getting paler.

"He has a fever." Ridian muttered, he looked terrible himself. Zaid rolled his eyes and forced Ridian to lay down. Gray yawned and mumbled incoherently.

In a cave in Canada, Azrael was forced into a sitting position by the other ghost teens. The oldest was probably twelve, while the youngest was probably nine.

"We are the Rebels of Canada!" The leader, the boy from the tree, said. "We don't listen to Walker, am I right my friends?" he asked.

Answers came in the form of whistles and laughter.

"Alright..." Azrael started to back away. A girl, one of the few in the group, grabbed his hand. She was at least ten years old.

"Please stay for the night?" she pleaded with him. Azrael weakened slightly at the large puppy dog eyes from the little girl with bright purple hair with the light pink streaks going through it.

"There's no use saying no to her." The leader said, chuckling lightly.

Azrael attempted to sneak out. He had gotten food and drinks, soda mostly. This was a band of kids, the foods were more sugary, but there were healthier foods there too.

A boy with white hair yawned, opening his mouth. But he was awake.

"Hi." He said, smiling, rubbing his neon green eyes with the back of his pale blue hand. "Can I come with you?" he asked. Azrael was dumbfounded. How did the boy…why did the boy expect Azrael to let him go? "I'm coming with you if you want me to or not."

"Then sure. You can ask your boss in the morning." Azrael tried, thinking he could get out while the boy slept.

"Okay! Here, come sleep over here with the rest of my group!" the boy grabbed Azrael's hand. "I'm Trene. Trene Mika Fianse. Hi!" he smiled cheerfully as he pulled Azrael over to a large area, there were beds left in shelves of the wall.

"Azrael." He answered as he lay down on the bed. "Goodnight." He closed his eyes and prepared to go to sleep.

In Amity Park, Zaid was sitting up watching Gray sleep. "How are we supposed to help him?" Zaid mumbled, staring at the ceiling above him. He sighed, wanting to go to sleep.

"I'll take over." Katalla mumbled, making Zaid stand up. "Go to bed, Zaid. I'll watch the two of them." She murmured, and Zaid nodded finally.

"G'night." Zaid replied, falling asleep on the bed in seconds.

Katalla ran a hand through Gray's sweaty hair, watching him breathing deeply. He looked pale, like he was losing his afterlife, little by bit. She sighed, pressing a kiss to his forehead, standing up and stretching and yawning again. The light was dim, but the sun was on the rise.

In the wake of the morning, Gray found himself clueless as to what was going on but he soon realized that a battle had ensued whilst he slept. He could hear the sounds of it—the screams as ghosts fought, things exploded, and powers clashed. Yet still Gray was tied up to a chair and there was a ghost emotionlessly guarding the door of the room where he had been tortured in. The young teen drowsily came to his senses and had faith that finally he would have a chance of escape.

Zaid, Katalla, and Ridian had finally discovered the location of a place Walker used to hold some of his prisoners aside from the jail in the ghost zone. Zaid didn't even know how the place came into existence but he didn't care, as long as he could save his friend. Fighting Walker's goons seemed like a foolish idea at first because no way could three teenagers beat them all, but, the joke ended up being on everybody when Azrael entered the scene.

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><p><strong>Only one more chapter to go! Hope you guys enjoy :)<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**Here's the final chapter!**

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><p>Chapter 14<p>

Azrael was not alone either, but rather with his new friend Trene and Trene's gang of hooligans. Walker's goons were so shocked by the sight of about a dozen children that the kids were able to take advantage of the element of surprise. Trene's small cohorts ended up being the real reason that the battle had tipped in the favor of Zaid's side. Though Azrael's sword master skills slashing up their rivals was definitely a big help.

There were a few seconds to breathe where Zaid asked Azrael, "How did you know we were here? How did you find us…and where have you been?"

"It's a long story." Azrael said. "Really long. But suffice it to say, this kid Trene has friends everywhere. He may not look like much but he was a really big help. It's one of his friends who was a scout nearby and reported to Trene of three suspicious teenagers entering a place like this. And I only knew of a few people reckless enough to try something like it." The two of them grinned.

"Restless is more like it." Zaid replied. "Anyways, once we get Gray out of here—wherever he is—we need to come back with you guys, alright? If we split up, Walker's goons might try to take us. But all of us together," Zaid looked out at the ongoing battle, "We seem to be invincible."

The fights continued and Zaid and Azrael jumped back into it. Katalla wasn't good at this sort of thing at all and neither was Ridian, but Trene jumped in to their defense once or twice. Zaid kicked massive goon butt, and seemed to be having the time of his life. Never before had he experienced such a thrill, not even on his adventures in the past few years with his best friend Zippy and other friend Nova.

When it seemed a survey over the entire building was in order, it was discovered that every goon had either been knocked out or fled the scene. Ridian and Katalla found Gray's room first and untied him gently. Soon, Zaid, Azrael, and the children came into the room. "Who are all of them?" Gray asked, but he was only shushed by Ridian who helped him by giving him a piggyback ride because he figured he was exhausted.

"So…I guess that's over then, huh?" Trene asked when there was finally silence.

"What is that sound I hear?" Zaid asked. "Oh right, nothing. It's the sound of peace in the world, for once. But it won't last long. We should all head on back to our homes but travel together for as long as we can." He sighed. "You all have the right to rebuke me and tell me I've been living in the human world for too long, but, the things Walker does is wrong, and if I ever go back to the ghost zone, I'm going to live that attitude and not back down."

"We know how you feel." Trene said. "It's not just you. So many ghosts have no morals. It's all choices, really. Anyone can be immoral. It has nothing to do which what species you were born to. And that's why we're going to burn this place after you leave."

"Good idea." Azrael said. "But now that it's all over, what's to stop Walker from coming after him again?" He said, pointing to the thin boy with the dirty blond hair.

Gray tried to hide himself behind Ridian but it didn't work, as they all looked at him.

"If you want, you can always come with us." Trene offered. "You all can; it's no problem at all. So what do you say?"

Gray took a quiet breath. "I really don't have much to go back to. I think that would be best, but I…who else would want to go?"

"Me." Azrael answered. "I'm definitely going to stay with Trene, at least for a while. But don't worry, Zaid, I'll come back to visit the apartment. Ridian, Katalla, I don't know about the ghost zone but I do not plan on this being the last time we ever meet."

Zaid nodded. "That's fair." At this temporary silence again, everyone flew out of the building. Some of the children who had fire powers used their abilities to set the place alight and let it burn. The goal was to make Walker see that not everybody would take his beatings, and this was the signal.

In the flight back to Trene's hideout, Gray went in and out of sleep. He was so upset that Katalla had not chosen to come to live with Trene also, but it wouldn't be fair to ask her, since she had a nice home to go back to. For now at least, everyone was together; and they settled on the ground at last.

Zaid, Ridian, and Katalla went around to say their goodbyes. Azrael thanked Zaid for being a great leader and friend, and Ridian for being so positive and Katalla for being so kind. When it came time for Katalla to say goodbye to Gray, she gave him a simple hug…but he did not let go. He started to cry and then he finally burst out one of the thoughts he had gotten so confused over in his head. "I want you to see me as more than just a little kid, Katalla."

Bewildered, she tried to back off but he did not release. The others were equally as puzzled, all except for Zaid who thought he had things figured out. Zaid also knew that unfortunately, Katalla didn't have the brains to realize what was going on by herself. Zaid could only watch in wonder of what was going to happen next.

"I love you…Katalla." Gray continued through his tears.

Zaid only face-palmed and said, "Maybe you should unclamp so you can let her talk." He suggested quietly.

Zaid quickly did so and finally looked her face to face as he awaited a response. The group was completely silent, and all eyes were on her, much to her surprise. "I'm…speechless. Gray, wow, I don't know what to say. You'll need to give me a chance to…think things over, alright?"

He nodded slowly in response.

"But one day, when we meet again, I'll be able to tell you what I feel." Katalla continued. "With all that's happened lately, it's easy for my emotions to get all jumbled and mixed up. I can't make heads or tails of my emotions at all right now so, even if you were to try and force me, I couldn't give you a sound reply."

Gray nodded as he looked down and away. It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no; so there was still some hope. He and Azrael followed Trene and the rest of the children deeper into their hideout. The remaining three waved them off and continued in flight to the nearest possible ghost zone portal.

One of Trene's friends stopped Azrael and Gray at the gate but let everyone else go through. "Names? I haven't seen you two around."

"Azrael Vertinak."

"Gray Name."

The stout-bodied kid raised an eyebrow to that and he flipped through his list of names until he came to a blank page in the back. "Those are lame. Your new names are…Kite Kiban and Grayson Nami. Lemme write that down…and there, all set."

Trene rolled his eyes at the guard's shenanigans and personally ushered the two new members of their group through. "Better do what he says." He said to the guys. "Nevertheless, here it is. Welcome to your new home, boys."

Somewhere getting further away by the minute, Zaid and his friends continued their journey back to a familiar place. Zaid was relieved that it was all over for them, hopefully, but as for himself, he could never really stay away from adventure. "I'll come by to pick up my things from the apartment later." Ridian informed Zaid. "Right now, I just want to get back home so I can tell my family what's happened."

"Same." Katalla agreed.

"No more running for me." Ridian grinned boldly. "I'm going to stick it out in the ghost zone and stand up against any immoral actions our classmates or teachers might do. You've gotta know this by now that I'm not the kind of guy who gives up easily."

"Yeah, yeah." Zaid replied jokingly.

"Anyways, what are we going to do with Gray's things, guys?" Ridian questioned.

"Oh well, uh, I'll keep them." Katalla offered. "He didn't have much to begin with, but I'll use it as an excuse to visit him and Azrael again. That way my parents don't ask."

"Anyways, what were you thinking when he told you he loved you?" Ridian asked as they continued to fly, trying to keep from laughing.

Katalla sighed. "I was shell-shocked. I really don't know what to make of it. I mean, I could see him having a bit of a crush on me because we have spent the night together before in the same bed…you know, because we were the smallest in the group so we had to share a bed. But that's it, honestly. I never would have thought he loved me."

Zaid scoffed with a sly grin. "Please. It was obvious." The three of them only laughed at this as they went through the first portal they could find. Zaid had the other two go through first, but he really remained behind. He had no intention of going back to the ghost zone from the start of the journey and his plans hadn't changed since.

Ridian and Katalla almost immediately realized that Zaid hadn't come through, so thy checked the human realm again, but he was gone. There was nobody in sight at all, even. Ridian and Katalla called out to their friend and looked around for about fifteen minutes, but then they finally realized he must have done that on purpose.

Ridian and Katalla flew back through the portal and headed to the island where their homes were. Though it was back to being just the two of them, they were still going to stand strong for what they believed in—that the ghost world was too immoral. As for Zaid, he would still hover around from place to place, nomadically wandering here and there. He couldn't keep himself in the same place for too long, not even if he tried. A true restless spirit could never relax.

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><p><strong>Merry Christmas, everyone!<strong>


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